Netflix dropped The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan on February 7, days before the two archrivals are set to face each other in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Here are five key takeaways from the documentary.
Several players from India and Pakistan try to describe the intensity of the rivalry. While former Pakistani pacer Waqar Younis says there is no match for an IND vs PAK encounter, Ravichandran Ashwin says it is bigger than the Ashes, the iconic Test cricket series played between England and Australia.
“Yes, we have the Ashes otherwise. But, I think probably this is bigger than the Ashes,” Ashwin says.
“I think Indians were scared to come to Pakistan. ‘Who knows what sort of country is this? What if there’s an attack on us? What if the crowd attacks us? Will we have adequate security?” Shoaib Akhtar says.
“The security was on a different level,” Sourav Ganguly says about the 2004 India tour of Pakistan. “I had never seen such security in my life. Airport had been brought to a standstill.”
“If anything happened to the biggest players we had: Sachin Tendulkar, Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, it could have a catastrophic impact,” says Virender Sehwag.
India won the 5-match ODI series 3-2 and the 3-match Test series 2-1.
Sehwag speaks Pakistan’s most dangerous weapon on a cricket field.
“When you play against Pakistan, the Pakistani bowling’s most dangerous weapon is their reverse swing,” he says.
“Reverse swing is an art,” says Waqar Younis. “Over the years, the world has come to know. It was more like a secret of Pakistan cricket.
Next, Sunil Gavaskar says Sarfaraz Nawaz was the innovator of reverse swing.
“The Pakistanis perfected it because they were able to pass it on from one generation to another,” the legendary cricketer adds.
Pakistani sports writer Osman Samiuddin remembers the tension between Sehwag and Akhtar. There was a time during one of the Test matches when the Rawalpindi Express was sledging the Indian batter. However, Viru handled the pacer well and smashed him all around with a lot of “disdain”, as then-Indian coach John Wright puts it.
At the Multan Test, Sehwag scored a triple century. India won by an innings and 52 runs.
While the Netflix India documentary interviews many legends from both sides of the border, it has two notable people missing: Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Dravid scored 270 in the Rawalpindi Test that India won by an innings and 131 runs. Dravid, India’s Test captain in that series, infamously declared India’s innings while Sachin was not out at 194.
Dravid has said that it was his only regret in his cricket career. Sachin was reportedly stunned by the decision and refused to speak to anyone after returning to the dressing room. The incident is not mentioned in the documentary.
